Panathinaikos and Olympiacos took major steps toward qualifying for the Greek Cup Final with blowout wins on Wednesday. The Greens thrashed Aris 87-58 at home behind 19 points and 8 rebounds from Kostas Tsartsaris, while the Reds overwhelmed PAOK 60-79 on the road as Vassilis Spanoulis bagged 16 points. The second leg of the semi-finals will take place at Alexandrion and Peace and Friendship Stadium, respectively, on February 9, with the Final scheduled for March 6. Panathinaikos, which played without the injured Mike Batiste, Aleks Maric and Drew Nicholas, closed the first half with 43-37 lead, but Aris surrendered in the second half. The Greens dominated the third quarter 31-12 and cruised to a comfortable win. Milenko Tepic added 14 points and 4 steals, Dimitris Diamantidis posted 11 points and 8 assists and Romain Sato recorded 11 points and 6 boards for the winners. PJ Tucker had 21 points and 6 boards and Kostas Sloukas contributed 11 points and 3 steals for Aris. At Pylaia, PAOK led 12-11, but Spanoulis and Theodoros Papaloukas came off the bench and pushed Olympiacos. At 15-17 the Reds went on a 3-12 run to take a double-digit lead. Three minutes before the end of the third quarter, with the visitors leading 37-47, the match was interrupted when the home team’s fans started throwing items, which caused an injury to referee Christos Christodoulou. The referees ordered the evacuation of the stands of spectators, something that took two-and-a-half hours. Papaloukas and Loukas Mavrokefalidis added 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Reds. Rawle Marshall netted 20 points and Lazaros Papadopoulos had 15 for PAOK.